Rated: M
Directed by: Michael Dougherty
Written by: Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields
Produced by: Mary Parent, Alex Garcia, Brian Rogers, Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni
Executive Producers: Zach Shields, Barry H. Waldman, Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Yoshimitsu Banno and Kenji Okuhira
Starring: Vera Farmiga, Ken Watanabe, Sally Hawkins, Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Thomas Middleditch, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Aisha Hinds and Zhang Ziyi.
Moving on from 2014, when the world realised that gigantic monsters exist, that the titans who once ruled the world could rise again, the Russell family has been blown apart after the loss of their young son, Sam.
Emma (Vera Farmiga) has thrown herself into research, continuing the synchronising of bio-acoustics that her ex-husband Mark (Kyle Chandler) abandoned. He’s left civilisation behind to study wild animals in the wilderness. Mark emails his daughter, Emma (Millie Bobby Brown) to keep in touch, but really, he’s run away from the family, to hide his grief.
Family drama aside, this next instalment in the Monsterverse is all about the titans, the 500-foot-tall monsters that are awoken to wipe out the human race, to bring about Armageddon.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters reveals the secret crypto-zoological agency Monarch, that continues to study and protect the titans. New titans are discovered and kept hidden from the world as the government fights Monarch in court, to force the agency to reveal everything about these monsters and once and for all destroy the threat.
I don’t want to reveal too much of the story (if you haven’t already seen the film) because there’s a few surprises here and new monsters added to the universe. Those who know the creators, Toho (who released a series of films featuring these giant monsters creating the kaiju eiga genre) will recognise the awesome creatures: Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah; monsters never seen on screen outside of Japan, until now.
I’ve got to say I couldn’t help but grin with the reintroduction of Godzilla. The build of suspense with the soundtrack giving the familiar gigantic monster something like magnificence.
Again, Godzilla rises when the future of humanity is at stake, as other titans are awoken, destroying the disease that has been killing the planet for thousands of years: humans.
It’s becoming a common theme in cinema these days: humans killing the planet. Seems the best excuse to kill off cities and people because humans are destroying the environment. But it gives the story here a good foundation for destruction.
There’s more about Godzilla and his origins, his role in living alongside humanity giving the monster something like a personality so I really wanted to cheer him on.
It was the humans I found to be insincere with a lot of standing around looking up with shock plastered on their faces.
Not that all the characters were bad – Bradley Whitford as Dr. Rick Stanton was a cracker.
And thankfully the delivery of some pretty ordinary dialogue improved as the effects ramped up. Probably because the human relationships weren’t as much of a focus when buildings started to get flattened and monsters started screeching at each other during epic battles for domination.
The tremendous sound of these monsters was deafening, making the floor in the cinema vibrate.
As director Michael Dougherty states, ‘These are popcorn movies,’ yet there’s a little more to Godzilla II with some unexpected twists in the storyline to keep it interesting and the monsters really come to life on the big screen.